[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit":3,"chapter-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-20":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","There Is a Malevolent Spirit",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2263126,4416,"Chapter 20: 19, Rice Mound (Requesting Follow Reads!)","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-20",20,"\u003Cp>19、Rice Mound (Requesting Follow Reads!)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the dim interior room, the man pushing the coffin hid behind it, his face unseen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A fat man, bare-chested, removed the lids from two coffins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang noticed both coffins had never been painted; their wooden grain was dotted with faint greenish-blue mold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kid, do you want to lie in the coffin yourself, or shall we put you in?” The fat man smiled amiably at Shi Danshi. “Don’t worry—everyone who comes here for madness or hysteria lies in these coffins and is carried down to the cellar beneath the Rice Mound. Nothing bad will happen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi Danshi stared into the pitch-black interior of the coffin, his eyes filled with clear fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Zhou Chang cast a glance his way, he forcibly suppressed that fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a teenager’s composure was too shallow—Zhou Chang saw through it at a glance. Lying on the ground, he smiled: “Uncle, you came here precisely to cure your own madness, didn’t you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t be afraid. Lie in the coffin, leave your delusions and illness in the cellar below, and you’ll be completely healed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s right—the Yongsheng cellar cures hysteria and madness very effectively. Most who think they’re mad recover after just one day here,” the fat man chuckled, agreeing with Zhou Chang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi Danshi nodded stiffly, muttering: “Alright, alright, I’ll do it myself…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy struggled toward one coffin, trying several times to climb over its side, but failed—until the fat man reached out, gripped his buttocks, and shoved him inside, where he lay flat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man then walked over to Zhou Chang and smiled: “You’ll need me to carry you into the coffin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang nodded in thanks: “Thank you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No trouble, no trouble,” the fat man chuckled, bending low to hoist Zhou Chang onto his shoulder, then lowering him into the other coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A heavy stench of sour fermented grain filled the coffin. As the fat man lifted Zhou Chang over the rim, he saw the bare wooden bottom—bearing a black-green, mold-covered human-shaped imprint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A faint glimmer flashed in Zhou Chang’s eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The human-shaped mark on the coffin bottom looked exactly like the residue left when a corpse’s fluids seeped through the wood grain!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the fat man turned Zhou Chang over, the imprint vanished from his view.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lay down within its outline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stench of fermented grain, mold, and previous occupants’ bodily odors flooded his nostrils. Amid them, he detected a faint rotting smell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A rotting-rat odor, heavily masked, barely perceptible—but once identified, it felt deep and sinister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Someone died in this coffin!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah! Don’t close it—don’t cover it yet!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, in the silent shed, Shi Danshi’s panicked cry rang out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pushed himself upright in the coffin, half-sitting, eyes darting wildly—finally locking onto the fat man: “I smelled corpse stink inside the coffin!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There’s a corpse imprint on the bottom!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Someone died in this coffin! I can’t lie here—I can’t—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The once-kind fat man’s face darkened at Shi Danshi’s frantic screams: “Don’t talk nonsense!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These coffins are meant for people like you with madness or hysteria. The human marks are sweat stains from those who came before you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you smell corpse odor, you’re clearly ill—need serious treatment!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wen San, pin him down! Cover the lid!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had the fat man finished speaking than the coffin-pusher, who had seemed to vanish behind Shi Danshi’s coffin, suddenly rose from the shadows!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His iron-claw hands shoved the sitting Shi Danshi back into the coffin!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The coffin lid slammed shut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside, Shi Danshi’s cries and pleas continued, along with the sound of fists pounding the lid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shut up!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man cursed bitterly, lowering his gaze to glare at Zhou Chang lying in the nearby coffin: “If you start making a fuss like him, I’ll cover your lid right now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He’s young, doesn’t understand,” Zhou Chang said calmly, lying still. “My family went to great lengths to get us these treatment tickets. No matter what, we must stay in the cellar and cure our illness.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To scream for release right after entering would waste our elders’ efforts.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t worry—I won’t make a scene like him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, yes! You’re older—you understand better!” The fat man nodded vigorously, his expression softening back to its earlier warmth. “Since you’re reasonable, I won’t cover your lid yet. Let you breathe a bit longer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thank you, thank you,” Zhou Chang’s pupils shifted as he added, “Could you help me sit up? I’d like to see what the Rice Mound looks like.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s deferential tone, his constant use of “you,” pleased the fat man immensely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man was never short of flatterers—but he’d never met one as refined as Zhou Chang. The Wen family’s sons were all scholarly and cultured, but how could their masters treat a servant like him with such respect?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So when Zhou Chang made his request, the fat man didn’t hesitate: “Want to see something unusual? Fine—I’ll help you sit up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did as he said, lifting Zhou Chang into a seated position inside the coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man waved to the two coffin-pushers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wheels beneath the coffins began turning again, their dull, heavy rumble echoing through the dim courtyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang sat in the coffin, scanning the shed’s furnishings: besides piles of empty wine jars, the only thing that drew his gaze was the towering “Rice Mound,” surrounded by pillars, constantly pulling at his attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thick, snowy-white mycelium grew wildly across the grain mound, intertwining to form a hardened crust over its surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the Rice Mound stood a silent stele: “Wen Laozu.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Behind the Rice Mound lay a deep, brick-lined tunnel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two coffins were pushed one after the other into the tunnel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cart rolled down a long, gentle slope. On either side, platforms built of yellow clay bricks bore more “Rice Mounds”—though only a few of these produced snowy-white mycelium.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most remained as ordinary piles of grain, untouched by mycelium.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even among those that had sprouted mycelium, most were dirty greenish hues—rarely as pure white as snow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before each Rice Mound stood a stone stele.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wen Zhao Lin,” “Wen Zhao Feng”…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wen Xing Ren,” “Wen Xing Yi”…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wen Si Zu,” “Wen Si Ming”…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The slope gradually curved, spiraling downward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look,” the fat man pointed to the Rice Mounds lining the slope, his voice echoing coldly through the deep cellar. “These cellars hold either people like you who claim madness or hysteria—or strange objects people feared.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Most have no illness—the grain above them shows no change.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Only a few truly suffer madness, their delusions causing the grain to sprout mycelium, slowly becoming Rice Mounds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Rice Mounds are the fermentation starters for Yongsheng Distillery.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These madmen, lying in grain piles, expel their delusions and turn grain into starter because of our Yongsheng Distillery’s ‘Gan Chun Qu.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gan Chun Qu exists only within Wen Laozu’s Rice Mound.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Those steles…” Zhou Chang’s gaze swept the Rice Mounds along the slope. The lower they went, the more weathered and eroded the steles became.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Those are wine labels!” the fat man cut him off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He disliked Zhou Chang calling the steles inscribed with “Wen ___” tombstones. He glared at him, then pointed to a stele marked “Wen Lin Quan”: “Wen Lin Quan cellar produces ‘Lin Quan Old Wine.’ Wen Lin Zhang cellar produces ‘Lin Zhang Ten-Year Aged Wine’…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang nodded, saying nothing more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To him, the so-called cellars stretching from ground to underground increasingly resembled tombs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how the fat man explained, he could not be convinced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did the Wen family’s ancestors really include men named Wen Lin Quan, Wen Lin Zhang, Wen Zhao Lin?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they did, did their afterlife become one of the cellars beneath Wen Laozu’s great Rice Mound?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And how did they die?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the cart neared the bottom, Zhou Chang shifted his gaze downward—the darkness remained absolute, but the air grew colder, damper. Occasionally, soil and stones kicked loose by the fat man and the pushers fell into the abyss, and Zhou Chang heard faint splashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath Wen Laozu’s Rice Mound, there must be a water source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No empty cellars left… [84] Is the cellar this full today?” The fat man glanced around. Even at the very bottom of the cellar, several cellars on either side still bore Rice Mounds, their faintly yellow mycelium trembling in the chill air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is the cellar this full today?\" The fat man glanced around; even though they were now nearly at the very bottom of the cellar, mounds of rice still piled atop several storage pits on either side of the ramp, their faintly yellow mycelia trembling gently in the chilly air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These Rice Mounds had fully fermented, nearing readiness as starter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The red cord on Zhou Chang’s wrist remained motionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The starter here seemed to hold no interest for it—it preferred drawing alcohol vapor from finished liquor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You two are lucky,” the fat man glanced at Zhou Chang and Shi Danshi’s coffins, then waved for the pushers to continue. He turned, hands behind his back, leading the two carts into the cellar’s deepest chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Splash splash…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water sound drew nearer, almost at Zhou Chang’s ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked sideways—amid the natural stone layers of the cellar floor, a spring no larger than a human head gushed forth, its gurgling the source of the sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside the spring stood two newly dug cellars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside each lay a brand-new, unvarnished wooden coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before them stood two clear-carved steles: Wen Yongxing, Wen Yongsheng!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The reason our Yongsheng Distillery’s Gan Chun Qu can ferment delusions into grain and turn it into starter is because of this spring Wen Laozu discovered!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You two are lucky—we only just dug these two cellars beside the spring this year. Few have been treated here yet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re getting a bargain!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man patted Zhou Chang’s shoulder. “You’re more obedient—you pick first. Which cellar do you choose?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s gaze lingered between the two freshly dug cellars. After a moment, he answered: “Wen Yongsheng.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man nodded and reached in to haul Zhou Chang out of the coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He carried Zhou Chang to the cellar pit before the tombstone marked “Wen Yongsheng,” where the two cart-pushing men, who had been hiding their faces all along, crouched down and pried open the lid of the coffin inside the pit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang saw that the bottom of this brand-new wooden coffin still bore a dark bluish human-shaped imprint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A stronger stench of decay rose from the human-shaped mark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was promptly laid down inside the coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two cart-pushing men at either end of the coffin slowly pushed the lid shut; as they closed it, they occasionally glanced inside at Zhou Chang—Zhou Chang saw them too, and beneath their wild, grass-like hair were two faces scarred by knife cuts and fire burns!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The coffin lid finally sealed shut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thin, faintly white, translucent threads clung to the minute gaps between the lid and the coffin’s rim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—The red string on Zhou Chang’s wrist had no interest in the fermentation mash here, but the thought-threads in his third eye were deeply stirred by the rows of rice mounds in this place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Splash! Splash…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lying inside the coffin, Zhou Chang heard the sound of grain crashing onto the lid from outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He deduced that the cellar pit where he and Shi Danshi lay was gradually being buried under a towering mound of grain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This sound lasted for a while, then abruptly ceased.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long silence, Zhou Chang heard the fat man’s voice, far, far away: “Start fermentation!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The voice echoed down from high above, swirling through the vast, winding cellar, forming layered, overlapping echoes—each echo shifted pitch, transforming the fat man’s voice into those of men, women, children, and elders:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Start fermentation!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Start fermentation!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Start fermentation!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant, the strange, circling echoes seemed to stir an invisible wind through the cellar, sweeping over every rice mound and grain hill, causing the mycelium on each mound to grow denser, and prompting mycelium to begin sprouting on some of the grain hills!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wind also swept over Zhou Chang’s body!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the grain hill covering the “Wen Yongsheng” cellar pit, clusters of snow-white mycelium began to grow wildly!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The multigrain mound gradually turned into a pure white rice mound!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the rice mound!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s thought-threads coiled upward, sinking deep into his own rice mound, each thread slowly shifting from transparent to blood-red.\u003C\u002Fp>",2075,"2026-06-19T18:47:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","2e0dfb2498991be70d3106693f329f76f5d0b7ea8e3577c652deb2ee0734f102","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-21","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-19",209,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthere-is-a-malevolent-spirit-cover.jpg"]